In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London

Henrietta Keeper’s Collection

April 11, 2012

by the gentle author

Henrietta Keeper, Singer

Henrietta Keeper (widely known as “Joan”), the vivacious octogenarian ballad singer who commonly performs at E.Pellicci in the Bethnal Green Rd on Fridays, invited me to round to her tiny flat yesterday to show me her remarkable collection of photographs and meet her daughter Lesley who is custodian of the family album. And it is my pleasure to publish some favourites here today.

These pictures show Henrietta’s life as it existed within a small corner of the East End on the boundary of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green in the nineteen fifties. On one side of Vallance Rd was Cranberry St where Henrietta’s mother-in-law Selina lived and took care of her daughters while the family waited for a house of their own. On the other side of Vallance Rd was Selby St where Henrietta’s husband Joe and his brother Jim ran Keeper & Co, making coal deliveries. And at the end of Vallance Rd was New Rd where Henrietta worked as a machinist at Bartman & Co making coats and jackets.

Having grown up in Bethnal Green during the war and brought her own family up though the austerity that followed, Henrietta is a woman of indefatigable spirit. Most remarkable of all, she sang throughout these years, winning innumerable singing competitions and giving free concerts – and she is still singing today.

Henrietta with fellow machinist Izzie. “When I was nineteen I started here and I became the top machinist,” she explained, “I think my hair looks a bit like Barbara Windsor’s in this picture.”

Henrietta with Mr Bartman at Bartman & Co.

“This is Selina Keeper, my mother-in-law at her house in Cranberry St. She was real Victorian lady. She used to whip the cup of tea off the table before you had finished it!” said Henrietta. And Lesley added, “She had a best front room that she kept under lock and key, and only once – when she unlocked it – did I go in, but she said ‘Get out!’ You couldn’t touch anything. It had to be kept perfect.”

“My husband Joe took this picture of his two best friends George Bastick and Leslie Herbert in Nelson Gardens next to St Peter’s Church, Bethnal Green. What a pity he isn’t in it?”

Coronation Day, 1953, celebrated at Hemming St, Bethnal Green. Lesley is in the blazer on the right hand side of the front row and Henrietta can be distinguished by her blonde hair beneath the Union Jack, peering round the lady in front of her.

“This is Jim Keeper, my brother-in-law, with his horse Trigger. My husband, Joe, worked with him and he had the biggest coal round in the East End – Keeper & Co. Joe was so strong he could carry a two hundredweight sack of coal on his back up the stairs of the buildings with ease. The brothers used to go home to lunch with their mum in Cranberry St and take Trigger with them. She always collected the horse manure for her roses while they were there and when the Queen Mother visited the East End, she leaned over the fence and said ‘This one should win best garden.’”

“Taken in 1947 at Southend, when I was twenty, this is Cathy Tyler, my sister Marie and me – I was known as Minxie at the time and we all sang together like the Andrews sisters. I was a bit shocked when I saw it because you can see I am pregnant. I thought, ‘Is that me?’”

Henrietta (far right) photographed with her workmates by a street photographer around Brick Lane during a lunch break in the fifties.

This is Henrietta’s daughter Lesley visiting Petticoat Lane with her grandfather James Keeper in 1953. “He was a delivery man with a horse and cart, they called it a ‘carman,’” Henrietta remembered, “he was also a cabinet-maker and he brought me beautiful polished wooden boxes that he made.”

Henrietta and her husband Joe with their daughter Lesley on a trip to Columbia Rd.

The two children on the right are Lesley and Linda Keeper playing at Cowboys and Indians with their friends in the nineteen fifties in Cranberry St while they lived with their grandmother. Lesley remembers Mrs Dexter across the road who called out “Play nicely on the debris!” to the children and you can see the bomb site where they played in the back of the photograph. Today Cranberry St no longer exists, just the stub of road beside Rinkoff’s bakery in Vallance Rd indicates where it once was.

Henrietta singing at a Holiday Camp at Selsey Bill in the nineteen sixties.

the blue brooch looks exactly like the one on silvana magnano’s hat in Death in Venice, ie., ravishing.

thank you for reproducing the evidence of her coiffure, which never says die; the pic of elvis on the wall of the garment factory; mrs. keeper who was such alady; coronation day; the debris and the cowgirl outfits (i had one like that meself, and i wore mine in africa); princess lesley in her beautiful coat holding the gifted hand of her grandfather; the husband who was so strong….

Thanks for the memories. My grandfather and grandmother lived in Cranberry Street, my mum was born there. I can still remember playing on the debri with the local kids when I visited, one of the boys names was Fagan and the other one I remember was Lennie. My Grandfathers name was Charles Yewman and his wife Annie, they lived two houses back from the cobblestone ramp that went into the railway yards on the right hand side going towards the ramp.

My dad’s family – the Meadows – lived 42 Nelson Gardens. One night in the war they went to the shelter leaving a mid terraced house and came back to find they were semi detached! Seeing these photos bought back many happy memories of my childhood and I just wish I had such a collection of photos.

Many thanks for the memories and the photos, I was born in Cranberry street in 1948, we lived upstairs at number 12, and the moss family lived downstairs. I remember playing on the bomb site, and the firework parties on bonfire night. we were moved to Hackney in 1960,am still looking for old photos of vallance Road.

These fine photos take me back to my young days in London. I used to live in the Elephant & Castle back in the 1950s, and the photo of the children playing at cowboys and indians with bomb site in the background was just as it was about the Elephant back then.

Peter Thurgood kindly gave me your website, running through your photos I looked at one of George Bastick and Leslie Herbert, I know both of them well. The Herbert’s lived in our street, St.Peter’s Avenue. George lived on the Hadrian Estate, he also worked for the Herbert’s on thier stall in Bethnal Green Road. Pellicci’s Cafe we would frequently quite often when Terry,Vince and Jeep were alive. Saturday mornings we would congregate outside, including the Kray’s to see what dance hall we were going to go to that evening.-’Happy days’

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Unauthorized use or duplication of these words and pictures without written permission is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Spitalfields Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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